He discussed going to the Nets with his agent but the Nets had nothing to offer him. 1.5 million would have likely been the most they could offer.
One thing that's not getting a lot of attention is that he left the Mavericks to play for the Knicks. The reason is because he never had a true Nets-Knicks rivalry with his time in the NBA. This would be the first and he wants to be a part of that. That shows his respect for the Nets, and the Nets were his first preference but it didn't work out.